Milan are the favourites, says Juve´s Buffon

Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon claims AC Milan are the favourites to land the Serie A title following their derby victory against Inter.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic scored the only goal of Sunday’s night’s game from the penalty spot to take Milan a point clear of Lazio at the top but perhaps more importantly, six points ahead of traditional rivals Juve and Inter, in fourth and fifth respectively, and seven clear of sixth-placed Roma.

And that’s enough to convince Buffon, who has yet to play this season due to a back problem, that Milan are the team to beat.

“They’re big favourites for the scudetto. If we finish three or four points behind them we can consider our season positive,” he said.

“But if we finish 18 points back then it’s clear we won’t have closed the gap.”

His second statement was possibly a reference to the 15-point gap Juve finished behind Milan last season, when the rossoneri came third and the Old Lady of Turin ended up down in seventh and outside the Champions League positions.

However, while Buffon believes Milan are the team to aim at, club captain Alessandro Del Piero thinks Juve still have a good chance.

“Everything is still possible given how close the league is,” he said.

“We should have beaten Roma, we had more chances, although it was a tough and even game.”

Coming into the weekend games the top six were separated by just five points.

That has crept out to seven now but wins for the top two Milan and Lazio means they actually have daylight between them and the rest given third placed Napoli are four points behind Lazio.